Professor Philip Alston, the current United Nations Special Rapporteur on poverty and human rights, has recently reported on conditions of extreme poverty and denial of human rights in the United Kingdom (Alston 2018). The report highlights such conditions with special reference to the effects of ongoing austerity measures.
In the last year, there have been several peasant protests in different parts of the country, a reflection of low incomes and distress among the peasantry. We now have a new source of data on the extent of savings and investment of rural households. According to NAFIS, on average, a rural household had a monthly income of Rs 8,059 in the survey year (the figure was Rs 8,931 for an agricultural household). The main point of this Note is to argue that this picture is flawed — it is very unlikely that rural households in distress, particularly those in the lower income deciles, have positive savings.
A major new source of data on rural households is the recently completed NABARD-sponsored National Financial Inclusion Survey or NAFIS 2016-17. This is a large sample survey covering 40,327 households in 245 districts of 29 States. Except for a pilot survey, the NSSO has never attempted to collect data on income and expenditure whereas NAFIS provides estimates of income, expenditure, saving, investments and asset ownership. In this first Note on NAFIS, I shall focus on income.
Land reform is an essential condition for removing the burden of absolute ground rent and set free the forces of production in agriculture in a rural society of a developing economy. Agricultural tenancy reform is an important component of land reform, where the state ensures security of tenure and maintains regulation of rent in particular in order to protect rights to cultivation of tenant farmers.
Kudumbashree, Kerala’s flagship programme for women’s livelihood security, has been in existence now for over two decades. Its contributions to food security and nutrition has recently been highlighted by the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security in its new report titled “Multi-stakeholder partnerships to finance and improve food security and nutrition in the framework of the 2030 Agenda.”
The Union Government announced minimum support prices (MSP) for 17 agricultural commodities (14 kharif crops) on July 4, 2018. The announcement came in the backdrop of the assurance provided by the Prime Minister to sugarcane farmers that the Government is going to provide MSP for kharif crops at one and half times of production cost. However, a closer look at the MSP reveals that for no crop was MSP more than 50 per cent of production cost.
It is well known that women play an integral role in the procurement as well as use of cooking energy, particularly from biomass. Existing gender roles within households impose a differential burden on men and women, with women having to bear most of the adverse effects of time-consuming and unsafe sources of energy for cooking and lighting.
Data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) show that education of girls and women continues to be neglected in rural areas of Odisha. District Fact Sheets from NFHS-4 show that every second female aged 6 and above in rural areas of six districts of south Odisha had not attended school.
Farm Harvest Price or FHP is a critical variable in determining incomes of farmers from crop production. Farm harvest prices are also used to estimate the contribution of agriculture to national incomes. In this post, we examine how farm harvest prices are defined, collected and reported in India.
Potato prices are volatile. In January 2018, because of very low prices, potato farmers abandoned their produce in large numbers in villages of Uttar Pradesh. Some farmers even dumped their produce in front of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s residence to register their protest.
Independent Researcher
Muktha is an Administrative Assistant at the Foundation. She holds a postgraduate degree in Commerce from Bangalore University. Muktha assists the administrative division of the Foundation.
Emeritus Professor and Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford.
Daya is a research intern at the Foundation. She holds a Masters degree in Applied Economics from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. Her research interests include Gender and Development in Rural India.
Senior Research Fellow, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bengaluru, and PhD Scholar, Department of Economics, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), University of Madras.
PhD Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
Senior Research Fellow, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bengaluru, and Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad.
Dona is a research assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's from Azim Premji University in Development. Her research interests include studying agrarian relations, and land tenancy in rural India. She had extensive work experience as a software developer, before shifting to the social sciences.
Rithika is a research assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from Christ (Deemed to be University), Yeshwanthpur Campus, Bengaluru. Her research interests include, agricultural economics and the public policy.
Nency is a research assistant at the Foundation. She holds a Master's degree in Economics from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru. Her research interests include gender and labour dynamics, particularly in rural contexts.
Parvathi Menon is a writer, and former journalist. She was Resident Editor of The Hindu, Bengaluru, and also served as the London Correspondent of The Hindu.
Namasivayam is currently a member of the Kerala State Planning Board. He has over 37 years of consulting experience of which over two decades have been spent on leading several large, complex, multi-year reform engagements in various sectors, with a special focus on the electricity sector. He was Deloitte India’s Energy and Resources Industry and Government sector Leader until his retirement in March 2017. Before joining Deloitte, Namasivayam was part of the India leadership team of PwC, and led its Government Reforms and Infrastructure Development service unit and Energy Utility & Mining industries.
Sarita is a special teacher and certified trainer in QST for autism spectrum disorders. She has been working at the Spastics Society of Karnataka from 2007, and is currently the Head of the Autism Spectrum Unit.
Professor, Department of Economics, Meijo University, Japan
Associate Professor, Kanagawa University, Japan
Former ICSSR National Fellow, Former Professor and Head :
1. Department of Economics, University of Madras
2. Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Economic Studies, University of Madras
Yogesh holds an MA (Honours) degree in Economics from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana. He is interested in understanding credit markets and financial inclusion in rural India. Yogesh will be a part of the team involved in the entry and processing of data collected during our recent re-survey in Uttar Pradesh.
Sai Chandan Kotu is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a Master's degree in Economic Growth, Population & Development from Lund University, Sweden, and an Integrated Master's in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He has previously worked with FAS as an intern and is currently working on the entry and processing of data collected through our recently concluded survey in two Uttar Pradesh villages. Sai is interested in studying farm mechanisation and technology adoption in Indian agriculture.
Utkarsh is the Communications and Events Coordinator at the Foundation. He holds an MA in Global Studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi, and has worked in different capacities, participating in field research, and organising academic and other public events in various organisations. Utkarsh's interests include geopolitics, conflict history, and technology.
B.A. Economics student at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru
Komal is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Her research interests include agrarian labour, caste, and gender. Komal is currently working on (un)freedom and labour relations in rural India.
JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University
Kulvinder is a Research Assistant at the Foundation. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and an MA in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has previously worked with the Haryana State Government as an Information, Education and Communication Expert, Atal Bhujal Yojana. Kulvinder is interested in studying aspects of agrarian change and rural transformation in India and aspires to do a PhD soon.
Nikita is an Editorial Assistant at the Foundation. She is involved with the coordination of the Review of Agrarian Studies (RAS), the peer-reviewed academic journal of the Foundation. Nikita has extensive experience as a copy editor. She holds a Master's degree in English from The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Lucknow campus.
Research Fellow, Azim Premji University, Bangalore
M.A. Economics student at Ahmedabad University
Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Employment, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru
Assistant Professor, Dr B R Ambedkar School of Economics University (BASE), Bengaluru
M.A. Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Retired Professor, Osaka Prefecture University
Consultant, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and Retired Head of Department, Department of Economics, Bharathidasan University.
Senior Fellow, Climate Change, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
Former Associate Editor, Frontline magazine, Bangalore.
Research Scholar, Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London
Assistant Professor - Sociology, FLAME University, Pune
Garware Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Advanced Study of India, and
Non-Resident Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania
Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Independent Researcher
Postdoctoral Fellow – Gender Research, Sustainable Impact Platform, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Associate Professor, Bihar Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Patna, Bihar.
Research Scholar, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, and
Technical Assistant, Office of the Vice Chairperson, Kerala State Planning Board
Department of Economics, Yokohama National University
Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Division of Food and Environmental Economics, Department of Agricultural Engineering and Socio-Economics, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University.
Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University
Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, PES University, Bengaluru
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
British Academy Newton International Fellow, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Senior Lecturer, School of Development, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru
Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
Master of Social Work. Vijaykumar is part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) team.
V. K. Ramachandran is retired Professor and former Head, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore Centre. He currently serves as the Vice Chairperson, Kerala State Planning Board. He is one among the Trustees of the Foundation. He is also the Editor of Review of Agrarian Studies. Webpage
Tapas is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Social Science from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research interests include the irrigation economy of India, water policies and institutions, agricultural policy, economics of farming, and rural incomes. He is also interested in the use of spatial technology to study the Indian countryside. He leads the Project on Village level Spatial Information using Geographic Information System (GIS), and the Pandemic Study Unit of the Foundation that examined the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in rural India.
Sudha is an Administrative Assistant of the Foundation. She assists the administrative division of the Foundation and also has taken part in fieldwork organised by the Foundation.
Subhajit is a Senior Data Analyst of the Foundation. He has done B. Tech from West Bengal University of Technology. He works primarily on issues related to employment and livestock economy in rural India, and has in-depth knowledge on cleaning and processing of survey data. He has also hands-on experience in the use of R software for data analysis.
Sethu is a Data Analyst of the Foundation. He has done Integrated Masters in Development Studies from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He has experience of coordinating a field survey of two villages in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu in 2019. He is interested in agrarian relations in Tamil Nadu and Geographic Information System (GIS).
Sanjukta is a Senior Data Analyst working on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. She holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Application from West Bengal University of Technology. Her major research interest lies in rural education and schooling. She has experience in working with a web development company prior to joining the Foundation.
Sandipan is a historian of Science, with a Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. His research interest lies in the history of agricultural science in India. He started his professional career as a Software Engineer and a Business Analyst with the Tata Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd, before shifting to social science research. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science Engineering, and was a gold medalist for post-graduate studies in School of Development Studies, TISS. He joined the Foundation as the Programme Coordinator in 2016 and became the first Director of the Foundation in 2018. He oversees the work of the Foundation and its various research projects.
M. Sc. in Development Practice. Riya assists in editing the Review of Agrarian Studies and other publications of the Foundation.
M. A. Economics. Ritam works on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI) team.
Rakesh is a Senior Data Analyst working on the Project on Agrarian Relations in India. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani, Hyderabad. He works primarily on issues related to migration and employment. Rakesh is also interested in issues related to access to basic amenities in the Indian countryside.
Pinki works as Assistant Manager-Accounts at the Foundation. She has done her Masters in Financial and Management Accounting from Sikkim Manipal University, and Masters in Economics from University of North Bengal. She is experienced in various accounting software packages. She has also been involved in several field work projects of the Foundation.
Noopur Varma is Honorary Consultant, Human Resources at the Foundation. She has more than 30 years experience in the area of Human Resources. She started her career in Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, where she worked for 14 years and her last corporate job was with Deloitte Bangalore. She is currently an independent consultant taking up projects and assignments for companies. She is involved with Strategic Human Resources initiatives of the Foundation.
Nihira graduated from the New School University, New York with M.Sc. in Media Studies. Her educational background is in film-making and audio production with a concentration on South Asian history. She joined the Foundation for Agrarian Studies in August, 2020 as the Online Events Coordinator.
Madhura Swaminathan is Professor and Head, Economic Analysis Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Bangalore Centre. She is one the Trustees of the Foundation. Webpage
Jayamary is our Office Assistant. She assists the administrative division of the Foundation in maintaining office supplies and in upkeep and maintenance of office premises.
Deepak is an Associate Fellow at the Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Development Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. As part of his doctoral research Deepak analysed the incomes from rice production in Kerala, and compared the crop incomes in Kerala with the Mekong Delta Region in Vietnam. Deepak is interested in agricultural policy, with a particular focus on agricultural costs and incomes. Data visualisation is another area of his expertise. He has experience of working at an analytics company. He holds an Integrated Masters in Economics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Arindam is the Joint Director of the Foundation. He is pursuing Ph.D. in Economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)-Pilani, Hyderabad. Arindam leads the Project on Agrarian Relations in India (PARI). He has worked at the Foundation from 2011 and has in-depth knowledge about various data management and analysis techniques. His research interests include rural wage rates and its determinants, rural employment, and Economics of farming. He has hands-on expertise in the use of R software for social science research.
